Hey, UND! This is Jaye Millspaugh and I am the Multimedia Editor at the Dakota Student. I’ve had a fabulous time being back here for these last two weeks, enjoying my new position since getting promoted from my staff writer job, that I held here for the last two years.

I’m in my final semester before graduation, on the 4.5-year plan, which seems to be the new normal. That tends to happen when you change your major, try a double-major and then drop one of them, then minor in your original major. I’m now a communications major with a visual art minor.

I’ve been enjoying all of my classes but I’m also a huge believer in education through experience. I tend to learn way better from doing things myself than I do from listening to a professor lecture about them, although my experiences here and as a reporter at Studio One have made the content in my journalism classes much more relatable and therefore easier to understand.

I’m not sure how it works in other majors, but I know in the communications program, there’s a big emphasis on portfolio over GPA. My portfolio can include things such as news stories, blogs, photography, art and video, as well as projects and papers I’ve done for classes.

My professors have continuously mentioned that employers in the field would rather hire someone with a 3.0 and an amazing portfolio than someone with a 4.0 and a weak or non-existent portfolio. Of course, this shouldn’t be used as an excuse to completely slack off in school; I still need to graduate if I want to get hired anywhere and I don’t enjoy getting anything worse than a B.

I think this is why my communications major is the perfect fit for me. I love getting out in the world and talking to all kinds of people and trying new things. I’m the type of person who would much rather have my own adventure than watch someone else have one on my TV screen.

Here’s to a fabulous, adventure-filled final semester at UND!